Hours of service questions and answers

+1. Absolutely right.

The 8-hour sleeper rule applies to those times when you split your 10. They've made that a little more complicated, so hopefully I'll be able to explain it clearly:

You may split your 10 up, but one portion must be at least 8 hours unbroken sleeper berth time. The other 2 hours can be either off-duty or sleeper. Here's the catch, though: your 11 and 14 do not reset after you complete both halves of the split. You take whatever time you were on duty before the last break period and subtract that from both your 14 and your 11. Your 2-hour part does not stop the 14. It counts against it. Your 8 hour portion stops the 14 counter but does not reset it.

I'll give an example in a few minutes...something just came up I need to take care of.

 

K, example:

0600 Pretrip
0615 Drive
1030 Break
1230 Drive
1515 Break
1530 Drive
1845 Sleeper
0245 Pretrip

This is a simple example, but here's the skinny: after the 2 hour break 1030-1230, this driver had 7 hrs 30 min left on his 14, 6 hrs 45 min left on his 11. That's pretty standard. We take breaks all the time and they count the same.

After his 8 hour sleeper time, available time is 7 hrs 45 min on his 14, 5 hrs on his 11. The time between the first part of the split (2-hr break) and the second part (8-hr sleeper) is subtracted from the 14, drive time between those two points is subtracted from the 11. The sleeper time did not count against the 14, but did not reset it either. It just pushes your time out a little so you can get out of the Northeast toll roads. That's where I use this the most.

The only way to completely reset your 14 and 11 are to take the 10 hours...as long as you're not close or over on your 70. Hope this is as clear as mud...

 

Yes, you do need to log both jobs. You don't mention if your driving job knows about your non-driving job and if they don't know and find out about your non-driving job, you could be fired for falsifying your logs and this would be on your driving records. If your company does know about your other job then they are taking on extra liability if you ever got into a serious accident, your fault or not.

 

been years since i did logs

so the only way to restart the 14 hr,,is 10 off....

one can extend the 14 hr by taking time off in sleeper berth, or off duty?

after 34 off...start new 8day- 70 hr ,,,,i do like that one as a single driver..that is new from what i was use too....when i drove...no #### way to drive until the 8th day and 70 hrs

so fueling, unloading , loading, pre-trips....are on duty , not driving...counting against the 14 hr...but not the 11 hr driving?

 

Not quite. The easiest way is a complete 10-hour break. One can also use a "split sleeper berth break" that combines a short 2 hour break with 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth. Its a little complicated - there are plenty of examples in various threads around the site.

You can only extend the 14-hour clock by spending a minumum of 8 consecutive hours in the sleeper berth - it has to be shown entirely on line 2. It can be more, but once you get to 10, then the whole clock is resent.

That works well in some operations - wh;n you get paid by the load hauling rocks or cattle drivin'. You can also work an average of 8.75 onduty hours per day and not run out of your 70-hours. It mostly depends on how tightly the load/unload appointments are set up.

Pretty much. It does depend on what your carriers policy towards log books are as well. Example... some companies will let you flag a post-trip without spending time on line 4 - just drawing the vertical line and indicating that it was done. Others require you show 15 minutes on line 4.

Some carriers require that you log every load/unload event entirely on line 4. Others will allow you to log the time spent dealing with the shipping/
receiving office, and the rest of it off duty or sleeper berth if you are not required to be on-dock.

 

As I understand it the only legal flag is from the drive line showing not only the location but the amount of time listed that it took to perform that on duty function.

When flagging be sure to assign a time factor to that on duty function such as 5 minutes. Just be aware that the 5 minutes will be factored out of your driving time and may push you into a speeding violation.

 

Actually you can flag a pre-trip...no time...that is only for those that stay in the same truck day in and day out...no slip seaters. the pre is to verify that you read your post trip from the night before and are aware of the condition of the vehicle is satisfactory...and the post trip must show 15 minimum, but if it takes 30...show 30 and so on.

But that is the FMCSA rule...your company rule may be different on flagging or 15 min on pre-trip.

 

Not including the case of EOBRs, there are quite a few things that only take a few moments to do. My carrier's viewpoint is that if you have an event that must be flagged in your log but took less than 7.5 minutes to perform, it doesn't necessarily require that you show 15 minutes for the task. Granted, there are cases that one could show a return to line 3 and may cause one to log a period that would result in showing that you exceeded the legal speed limit. But that could happen anytime you take the rosey view of managing line 3 without doing a little 8th-grade math to keep the bears at bay.

 

8th grade math....what are the Swifties gonna do then...won't they accept 6th or 5th?

 

I have read thru most of this post- so forgive if this has been asked as it IS about clear as mud....to a non driver trying to figure this out.
HOS: 11hr drive 14hr onduty 10hrs off 34 reset at day 8 correct? Okay here's the example: so start driving last Tues 1700 off last PM 1930 or so that makes day 8 last PM- still a few hours left on the 70 (like 2 but not enough to come home) so doing reset. Okay I get this but why I have I seen a post somewhere (?) been awhile not sure where that said something to the effect of ''if I watch my hours I never have to worry about the 34 hr reset'' Basically I see the 34 hr reset as 'you work a week (8 days) and must take off ''2'' days to rest' right?
Thanks in advance for the help!!